This site is about the journey of me and my husband to become debt free. I'll tell you what we've tried and what works for us to hopefully help you on your debt freedom journey and have some fun along the way.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Save Green by Reducing, Reusing & Recycling, Part 1

In honor of Earth Day today, I thought I would write about saving money through reducing, reusing and recycling. While Jason and I are concerned with being responsible with resources, we are also very concerned about conserving our money. I tried to write this in one article but I think it would be easier to read if I separated the sections out into three articles.

Reduce

We live in a world now of being wastful. It's disgusting how people just consume everything at alarming rates with little to no concern about the money or product they're wasting. By reducing just the waste of the items and resources that we use we can not only be better to the environment but also keep more money in our pockets. For example, if you aren't wasting paper towels by using whole sheets for small jobs then you won't use need to buy as many paper towels. There you save the trash going into the landfill and also the cash going out of your wallet. Another thing that has always make me just shake my head is why we cut down perfectly healthy trees to use for toilet paper. We literally cut trees down to flush them! There are plently of toilet paper companies out there that produce a recycled toilet paper that you would never know the difference. It doesn't feel like cardboard or sandpaper and most of the time isn't even one-ply. Try it, you might be surprised.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't use what you need, but many times we grossly overestimate our needs and take more of things than we actually need. It would be great if people would just think about these things instead of being so oblivious to the expense to both themselves and the environment. I mean, do you really enjoy spending your money on toilet paper, paper towels, etc? I know I don't. I have many other fun things that I would rather spend our money on.

2 comments:

The best thing we can all do to help the enviroment is to stop buying so much stuff. I have recently got on to sustainable living blogs and they really open your eyes to the destruction that we are all doing to the earth by buying so much stuff. I was a coupon fanatic until I started reading the sustainable living blogs. I have made big improvements but still have a long ways to go. I agree with you, it all blends together. By not buying unneeded items or hardly anything at all and reusing items what you have, you save the enviroment and money at the same time!